CO537-2187 — Page 22

it and I would not advise your doing more than remind the Foreign Secretary of the reasons for our anxiety that there should be an early declaration of our intention to remain in Hong Kong, and should ask that, if any discussion of Far Eastern 'affairs at Moscow should afford an opportunity of getting American support for such a declaration, he will feel able to secure that and so ease the way for what you regard as a sound and desirable move.

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The Secretary of State spoke with Mr. Bevin last night much in the sense of the last paragraph of my minute above, stressing in particular the difficulty, if only from the financial standpoint, of making a "show piece" of Hong Kong in the absence of some reassuring statement about our intention to remain in the

Colony.

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